Considering the frequency of dopamine-related mutations in humans that seem to require dopaminergic drugs for treatment (And our culture's current paralyzing fear of dopaminergics), it seems far too early to label tobacco a universal scourge.

How many murders or confrontations in general have been prevented by a dose of nicotine? How many suicides prevented due to its acute antidepressant effects? It's very difficult to quantify nicotine's benefits, and its negative effects are much more visible.

Perhaps The Diamond Age was a little off-target when talking about nanobot assembly of goods from pipelines of raw materials: programming biological viruses to build the structures you're looking for seems like it's becoming more and more viable than trying to purpose-build nanobots to do the same.

This should also lay to rest some of the more vehement rhetoric about 'grey goo' disasters; if there were going to be a 'grey goo' scenario, bacteria would have done it aeons ago.

Funny, the definition I have always heard was that vegetables ARE stems, leaves, flowers and roots that you eat. If you want to only go with textbook terms, there are no humans either, just homosapiens. So, squash was never a vegetable. Tomatoes are not vegetables either.

Really, it depends on what way you're speaking. In a horticultural (applied plant science)/culinary sense, vegetables are plant parts usually used in savory food, typically annuals, regardless if what you eat is leaf, petiole, root, tuber, stem, flower head, bud, seed, fruit, ect. Botanically, pure plant science, it's true that the term vegetable has no meaning. Confusion can arise with things like tomatoes because the term fruit has different meanings; as a horticultural or culinary term, it is someth

Gasoline has an energy density of about 34 MJ/L, while current Li-ion batteries have an energy density of around 0.7 MJ/L. If this comes to fruition, we'll have batteries with about 1/5th of the energy density of gasoline. That's quite amazing, in my opinion.

What if that battery is pierced, though? I know that the Tesla rig uses a slew of small cells. Do other electric cars like the Volt or the Leaf do the same thing? It seems to me that a number of small cells might present less of a problem, though that would drive the energy density of a battery pack down.

It's especially good because electric vehicles are around 4x as efficient as internal combustion engines.
The Leaf uses larger flat sheets of batteries to increase their ability to release excess heat.

You have simply moved the combustion for energy from your engine to the power plant down the street.That's already a big deal. The plant down the street is way more efficient than a car.The only true answer to our car emissions problem is hydrogen fuel.Ah, yes, because generating/storing hydrogen is soooo efficient.

And where does the hydrogen come from? As it stands, the internal combustion engine is the worst offender when it comes to car emissions. All the alternatives, including hydrogen and electric, are significantly better.

lithium batteries are sufficiently unstable that they are banned from commercial aircraft and US mail.

Then explain why I'm allowed to mail a Game Pak of The Legend of Zelda, which contains a CR2032 lithium battery to power an 8 KiB SRAM. Or have classic video game dealers been breaking the law all this time?

As an e-cig enthusiast, I will attest that it just isn't the same. With the e-cig, I get the satisfaction of inhaling something and seeing the resulting cloud. I also get my nicotine fix. Sure, nicotine is a poison, but at least all I'm inhaling is nicotine and propylene glycol (or food grade vegetable glycerin); there is no burning or 4000+ chemicals as found in a traditional cigarette. The gum just doesn't do it for most people.

So perhaps some regulation is needed to limit the maximum concentration (not that I welcome such a thing). Stop protecting me from myself. Most people try a higher dosage because they want something called "throat hit". I achieve a good TH by using a low electrical resistance atomizer and a high mAh battery (low capacity batteries will be damaged by a LR atty). Nobody really NEEDS 36mg/ml concentration, but I order it so I can dilute it with PG or VG and get more e-juice for my buck. The moar you know and s

dude, which ecig do you use? I wanna try it, but apparently not all brands are teh same (quick search reveals that some brands suck big time, chief complaint being that it hardly makes any vapor and battery dies too fast)

I might suggest a regular resistance atomizer for use with the RIVA as you can sometimes end up with a sort of burned taste. It takes some experimenting to figure out what works best for you. Your best bet is to head over to the E-Cig Forum [e-cigarette-forum.com] and doing a bit of reading. There's a lot to choose from and you should be able to make a more well informed decision based on what y

The lozenges are good. It's basically just like dip (sustained release and stronger dose; what's not to love?) except that you put it in your cheek, like chaw, instead of behind your lip. As a bonus, there's no disgusting spit or oral cancer (AFAIK -- I'm not a doctor).

If you really want to quit nicotine, though, the patch works pretty well. It provides just enough nicotine to keep you from killing your neighbors, but not enough that it won't take significant willpower to resist other forms, which means

1) Slice the eggplant into ~ 1.5 cm - 2 cm slices. Salt one side of each slice. Reassemble eggplant, wrapping with cling wrap to hold it together. Let it rest for ~30 minutes until all the bitter juices leech out, and then wipe each slice dry.

2) Roast or grill eggplant for a couple minutes, until it looks like it has started cooking.

Then, do whatever you want with it.

Also, it helps to know that the eggplant has "male" and "female" fruit, and that the female fruit has a more bitter flavor.

Take one eggplant, cut in ~3/8" slices. Lightly bread each side with Italian seasoned crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese, then toss delicately into a medium pail of garbage. Repeat the process if you need more practice, otherwise remove the veal cutlets from the fridge and make dinner.

Interesting, I thought you meant that you created dried, grated, eggplant and thought it looked like grated Parmesan cheese. But it seems to me that this is a dish not well known in the Netherlands. It seems that - at least according to the Wikipedia page - eggplant Parmesan came first, so your family is actually preparing the original Italian dish again.

Unfortunately it doesn't just have an affect tobacco. Other species of plants can also be infected including food crops.
So there are a number of ways this could go wrong.

Somehow I see a parrallel here between computer security and the use of a virus to manufacture a product. Security makes it hard and less efficient, so lets do without security until all hell breaks loose and then we'll sit shaking our heads wondering or thinking we should have been more careful.

I like having the freedom to breathe air that isn't tainted by your smoke. Smoke in your own house, and nobody will bother you.

To tie this back to the topic: it will be interesting to see if this virus will actually spread, as a result of this new use. If it does, maybe we won't have to worry so much about non-smokers' rights. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I might even suggest that this is an attempt to destroy the nicotine crops. Ha.

I like having the freedom to breathe air that isn't tainted by your smoke.

Then don't stand near me. Seriously, the risks of second hand smoke in an outdoor area are very small compared to the risks indoors. You are willing to tolerate diesel fumes, which are also pretty bad for you (and contain many dangerous carcinogens and heavy metals); tobacco smoke is just a fun punching bag.

it will be interesting to see if this virus will actually spread

This virus has already spread and it causes a lot of crop damage each year, not just to tobacco but to plenty of other nightshade crops: tomatoes, peppers, potatoes. If tobacco is wiped out by this

Then don't stand near the doors of the building, or in the way on the sidewalk. Smoke in the middle of the street and you won't infringe upon non-smoker pedestrians. Or put a trash bag over your head before you light up. Either way, your choice.

>>> Seriously, the risks of second hand smoke in an outdoor area are very small compared to the risks indoors.

His smoking contributes to making him happy and/or satisfied. You could very easily say the same thing about gay sex.

Especially given how some smokers, when foul weather hits, seem to think its their god given right to blockade the entrances and exits to building so that they can light up. Same with bus shelters and crowded streets.

You see, that's not a problem caused by smoking or by cigarettes.

You have a problem with people who are stupid, rude, and inconsiderate of you. However, there's a statistical link between people with those traits and smoking. There are further links between such and poverty. How cute that they all line up, eh?

Maybe if we use some of those exploitive cigarette taxes to fund education and

Especially given how some smokers, when foul weather hits, seem to think its their god given right to blockade the entrances and exits to building so that they can light up.

I do it on purpose for all the people who voted to take our rights away (I live in Wisconsin, ban was enacted July 5th). There is no demand for non smoking bars (not where I live anyway). If there was there would have been non-smoking bars before the ban and bars wouldn't be going out of business, shortening their hours and closing on Mondays.

I like having the freedom to smoke cigarettes, and cry baby nanny-staters like DoofusOfDeath make me angry.

Even I, a non-smoker, get angry when people try to impose things on smokers, because an attack on someone's freedom to do something that doesn't harm others is an attack on my freedom to do the same. And no, I'm not talking about restrictions on smoking in public spaces where the smoke affects others; I'm talking about restrictions/taxes on smoking on private property where the smoke doesn't drift on

I like having the freedom to smoke cigarettes, and cry baby nanny-staters like DoofusOfDeath make me angry.

Even I, a non-smoker, get angry when people try to impose things on smokers, because an attack on someone's freedom to do something that doesn't harm others is an attack on my freedom to do the same. And no, I'm not talking about restrictions on smoking in public spaces where the smoke affects others; I'm talking about restrictions/taxes on smoking on private property where the smoke doesn't drift on to neighboring property and the property owner is OK with smoking.

How about the increase in the cost of my healthcare due to people with tobacco induced illnesses who can't pay their medical bills?

It's really quite simple. There are people who create and sell an addictive product which kills people. They know it, we know it, the idiots who kill themselves with the product know it, and at least in the US, we subsidize the process with tax breaks for the industry and 'free' emergency room care for the idiots. The manufacturers and sellers of tobacco, and the politicians w

All that and your conclusion is not that the system of socialized healthcare is unfair, but that smokers are exploiting it and should just be allowed to die so you can stay on your socialized healthcare without having to pay for their medical costs. Amazing.

The truth is, I was using a bit of hyperbole to point out that 'personal freedom' is rarely as simple as it seems, and that one's actions often carry consequences not only beyond the obvious, but beyond one's knowledge. Also, I've noticed that the people who make the most noise about personal freedom often are the same ones who complain most loudly about how they are affected by other people's actions. So I turned a common argument from that quarter back on the source, so t

and then when that guy smoking a private property comes down with lung cancer, we have to pay for his treatment

and he won't have health insurance, because according to him, to be forced to get health insurance is evil socialism, an affront on his freedom

of course, he'll take the healthcare he can't afford without insurance, to save his ignorant ass, anyway, because his "ideology" is worth shit: its just an excuse to freeload off responsible people, by not carrying insurance, but expecting treatment he can't

Before anyone tries shooting me down over this, yes I smoke and I occasionally drink. Good luck getting your third chemo dose with no insurance and no money paid to date. Hit by a car? Sure, we'll patch you up. Something stupid and long-term like smoking-induced lung cancer? Go screw yourself. Hospitals are not specialists, but oncologists are specialists that can and will demand cash up front from the uninsured (even if they work in a hospital). This is not the problem you make it out to be, and you

In some parts of the country, cigs go for eight bucks A PACK. Show me an "inspected and cared for" tomato going for 8 bucks...

It's not the cigs that cost that much. It's all the sin-taxes put one them that make them that expensive. Tobacco is relatively cheap.

You are right that the taxes are high on cigs. But, when compared to tomatoes... no it's not cheap. Tobacco goes for around $1.50/lb on the US wholesale market depending on the variety, harvest, etc. Tomatoes go for around $.40/lb on the US wholesale market. Remember, tomatoes are 98% water...

Even if the virus only affected tobacco -- in reality it affects lots of other crops -- if it caused the extinction of tobacco, that would be a bad thing for the world. There are numerous wild tobacco species whose extinction could have all sorts of consequences (like a suddenly rise in the population of insects). Tobacco is often used as a natural insecticide by people who want to be "green."

The tobacco plant is not evil (how can a plant be evil?) and its extinction would not necessarily be a good thi

This isn't a genetically-enhanced super virus or anything, it is a common virus. Granted, assuming the process does not disable the virus, there is the slight chance that an exploded (or improperly disposed of) battery could infect a nearby field, but it is far more likely that the virus . We are talking about a 10-fold increase in capacity here, though. That is huge. Assuming it scales linearly, the Nissan Leaf's 100 mile average capacity would be expanded to 1000 miles. I drive a ton for work, and that me

If, as I fervently hope, batteries like these become available for EVs in the next few years, we still have one big problem - CHARGING them. Gasoline holds about 36 kWh per US Gal - 50% more than the entire 100-mile battery pack of the Nissan Leaf. So, using the LEAF as a guide, a 1000-mile battery would be at least 240 kWh, which would take ONE HUNDRED hours on household current.So, if you're planning a long trip, either you'll need 2 EVs, to plug-in everywhere you go in the week preceding your departure o

I'm well aware of vehicle to grid; it's one of the features of the Better Place plan that I like. I'm not even talking about strain on the grid either. I fully believe that the grid is capable of meeting the near-term demand for EVs. What I'm targeting here is the (in)ability to charge the "SuperBattery" - even if you could deliver the amount of power required to fill it up in a reasonable time - to charge a battery at the same rate that you pump gas, you'd need a 1.5 - 2.0 MegaWatt line.Charging stations w